Bryan
– Neo-conservative critics are saying the improved jobless rate announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a case of cooking the
books.

A
local member of the House of Representatives told voters the
government left out three critical factors in its calculations –
population growth, the number of people who have simply given up
looking for work, and the percentage of the population that
participates in the labor market.What's at play, here? It's pretty simple, really. There is a growing political groundswell that demands quality in the information the government peddles its customers - the voters.

Freshman
Congressman Bill Flores (R-TX) of the 17th District is a
proven numbers cruncher – a CPA and an oil executive with 30 years
experience who rode the anti-Obama referendum into office in 2010. He clobbered 10-term Representative Chet Edwards, a conservative Democrat, in a landslide.

In
a newsletter to constituents, Mr. Flores said it's always encouraging
to see positive numbers on the economy, but expressed skepticism in a
bit of critical thinking applied to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
report that brought the glad tidings.

He
admitted that there is not enough information to make a solid
conclusion, but that as it becomes available, his constituents will
be the first to know.

“In
order to keep up with population growth, our economy needs to add
about 150,000 jobs per month; this report only showed 114,000 new
jobs. In addition, two other important jobs metrics continued to show
how badly our economy is fairing: the U-6 measure (includes
unemployed, underemployed, and persons who have given up) remained
virtually unchanged at 14.7%, and America’s labor participation
rate remained about the same at only 63.6%, still near an all-time
low,” Mr. Flores pointed out.

“So,
how did the Bureau of Labor Standards (BLS) report show an
inconsistent drop in the 'official' unemployment rate (U-3) with no
real improvement in job growth, the poor U-6 rate, or the weak labor
participation rate? Many economists and job analysts are looking for
answers and so am I. Stay tuned, and we will provide further updates
as soon as we have more information.”

In
speculation, however, Mr. Flores ventured the opinion, “One reason
that the unemployment rate could have dropped is that more Americans
dropped out of the workforce for every person who found a job —
this trend has been recurring with nearly each job report of the
Obama economy. As a result, if the labor force participation rate was
at the same level as when the president took office, the unemployment
rate would be at 10.7%.”